15:15 05.09.2017

Putin's comments on activating militants if arms sent to Kyiv is blackmail against U.S. and threat to wage war in Ukraine

2 min read
Putin's comments on activating militants if arms sent to Kyiv is blackmail against U.S. and threat to wage war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement that possible delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine may lead to an increase in casualties and trigger use of military force on other territories is barefaced blackmail of Ukraine and the U.S., Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy (Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) Iryna Friz has said.

"Threats by Putin to activate Russia-controlled military units and terrorist cells in other 'vulnerable' areas of Ukraine if the U.S. delivers weapons to Ukraine should be rebutted swiftly by the international community," Friz said on her Facebook page on Tuesday.

She said the statements "confirmed officially what Ukraine has been saying: full Russian control by the Kremlin and control over terrorist organizations of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics, which are directed, controlled and supplied weapons from Russia." The candid remarks by Russia's president should be the basis for economic and political pressure on Moscow, she said.

Friz said Russian hybrid forces serving the self-proclaimed republics today do not have the required resources and potential to attack independently. The only scenario under which they could expand the territory they currently occupy requires Russian intervention.

"Thus, Putin's comments can be construed as barefaced blackmail of the U.S. and a threat to wage war against Ukraine. Such statements cannot be ignored in Europe. I am sure that Ukraine in the United Nations will initiate hearings and an investigation into Russia's support for international terrorism," Friz said.

Friz told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency that Putin's comments on a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas mask an attempt to manipulate and show Russia's unwillingness to fulfill its commitments under the Minsk agreements.

"The desire of Russia to deploy a UN mission only on the line of demarcations shows the desire to freeze the conflict, retain full control of occupied territories of the self-proclaimed puppet republics," she said, adding that any UN peacekeeping mission should be deployed throughout eastern Ukraine.

Friz said the priority today should be carrying out agreements under the Minsk agreements, starting with a ceasefire and release of prisoners.

"Putin's comments once again demonstrate to the international community who is drawing out the peace process in Donbas and violating the Minsk agreements," she said.

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